Juan José Mutilba was 66 years old and had just caught a tuna when he slipped on its blood on the boat’s deck.
He fell into the sea on Tuesday, August 18, somewhere between Sicily and Greece, in front of his wife Carmen Díez. She froze. She couldn’t maneuver the sailboat in time, couldn’t throw him anything, couldn’t do anything at all. The boat continued on its course and Juan José disappeared into the water.
What came next was worse: three days alone, without cell service, with no way to call for help, drifting somewhere in the Mediterranean with the last image of her husband sinking etched in her mind. It was only on Friday, August 21, that she managed to contact a family friend, who alerted Salvamento Marítimo. The Greeks found her 18 nautical miles from the coast and towed the boat to Pylos. Carmen has a boatmaster’s license, but nothing had prepared her to maneuver a boat of that size alone in the midst of panic. She received psychological support and returned to Spain on doctor’s orders, although she did not want to leave without news of Juan José. He remains missing.
